Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated.

A thoroughbred business man cannot enter heartily upon the business of life without first looking into his accounts.

To be admitted to Nature's hearth costs nothing. None is excluded, but excludes himself. You have only to push aside the curtain.

The man who does not betake himself at once and desperately to sawing is called a loafer, though he may be knocking at the doors of heaven all the while.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind.

This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.

There are more consequences to a shipwreck than the underwriters notice.